Improvement in pianos



W. F. ULMAN.

Piano.

Patented Jany 10, 1871.

Z; f dzdw UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFIOE.

WILLIAM F. ULMAN, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN PIANOS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 110,940, dated January 10, 1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM F. ULMAN, of Boston, in. the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented Improvements. in Piano-Fortes; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawing which accompanies and forms part of this specification, is adescription of my invention sutficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

My invention relates particularly to the arrangement or method of supporting the sounding-board of a piano-forte, and also to a method of insulating the strings from the metal of the string-plate to which the string pins or studs are attached.

The invention consists, first, in supporting the sounding-board only at intervals around its edge, upon small knees or projections ex tending from the frame, instead of fastening it all along its edge upon the frame; also, in combining, with the metal string-plate and the string pins or studs proj ectingtherefrom, strips of wood set in grooves in front of the pins, and so that the strings, in starting from the pins, pass over and bear down upon the wood, thus destroying the metallic connection be tween the strings and the metal plate and its pins.

The drawing represents a piano-forte case, sounding -board, and string plate, with the string-pins and one of the strings and its hammer.

A shows a plan of the case, sounding-board, and string-plate. B is a sectional elevation of the same.

a denotes the case; b, the soundiiigboard; c, the metal string-plate; 0, one of the strings, f, the string-pins; g, one of the hammers.

The sounding-board may be made and ar-' ranged within the case in the usual manner, except as to its method of support.

From the inner surfaces of the case or frame projections or knees h extend, and upon these the sounding-board rests at its edges, having no direct contact with the frame, but resting upon these projections, which are so spaced as to afford the soundboard all necessary support, but, otherwise, to leave the board e11- tirely disconnected from the frame, being thus more free to vibrate than is a soundingboard glued or fastened to the frame.

At the front side the soundboard is suspended upon scrcw-pins '1', passing through the board up into the front board 7:, soft washers Zbeing interposed between the heads of the screws and the sounding-board, and between the board and the front board It.

The stringpins f are arranged and project from the metal string-plate in the ordinary manner, but at the hitch or end pins I form a groove, m, in the plate, just within the line of the pins, and insert in this groove a strip of wood, a, said strip projecting up above the plate, as seen at B, and so that the pins, by the strain of the strings, bear against the wood, and thus cut off from the string the metallic vibrat-ions of the string-plate, thus securing, with the strength of the string-plate, the sonorousness of the sounding-board unimpaired by the metallic sound given by the metal. plate when the strings extend from the pins and the pins from the plate, with no intercepting medium between the pins and plate and the vibrating part of the strings.

I claim 1. A sounding-board supported, with reference to the case or frame, upon projections 71, extending from the frame at intervals, substantially as shown and described.

2. In combination with a metal frame, strips of wood a, or analogous material, upon which the strings bear, (adjacent to the hitch-pins,) substantially as described.

3. In combination with the metal string-plate and the hitch-pins, the groove or grooves m, for receiving the strip or strips n, substantially as shown and described.

IV. F. ULMAN.

Witnesses:

FRANCIS GoULD, SB. KIDDER. 

